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Upon arrival at the U.S. Marshal's office in Burlington last July, Edin Sakoc expressed his frustration and confusion at being arrested.

Special Agent Seth Fiore, with the Department of Homeland Security, asked Sakoc about the night in 1992 where he was alleged to have kidnapped and raped one Bosnian Serb woman and helped in killing two others.

Sakoc, 55, of Burlington denied the crimes, blaming them on the man alleged to be his co-conspirator.

"It's sometimes hard to recall what happened in 1992 that happened not yesterday," Sakoc said to the agent.

A jury of eight women and four men exited a federal courtroom to deliberate in the case against Sakoc around 2:20 p.m. After re-listening to some testimony around 4 p.m., the jury broke for the day at 8 p.m.

Deliberation will continue Friday morning.

At task for jury members: To understand the alleged 20-year-old crime that is said to have occurred thousands of miles away and thereby determine whether Sakoc lied about involvement in war crimes on his citizenship application.

Lawyers delivered their closing arguments Thursday morning in U.S. District Court in Burlington. Sakoc is charged with one count of "knowingly providing false and fraudulent information" on his applications in each step of becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen.

One of the original two charges against Sakoc was dropped on Wednesday.

If convicted, Sakoc faces up to 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and loss of citizenship and deportation.

Federal prosecutors say that Sakoc, an ethnic Bosnian Muslim, was involved in the persecution of three Bosnian Serb women during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovenia in 1992.

During closing arguments Thursday, Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Bauer told jury members that Sakoc raped the kidnapped woman in a nearby army home. Bauer has been assigned to the Vermont case from Washington, D.C.

Sakoc later brought the kidnapped woman to a war camp, according to her testimony that was presented during the trial.

"Her screams and her cries filled the house," Bauer said. "Afterward, he took her back to his car, kicked her, and drove off. He took her to the concentration camp, but not before raping her again."

Sakoc's attorney Steven Barth said the alleged rape victim only came forward with the story in 2012 when she was being interviewed by federal investigators in connection with Sakoc's case. Barth said the story may have been planted in her head since the investigator told her he had a witness.

Bauer said that Sakoc denied having been involved in crimes or persecution on his citizenship forms, which prevented U.S. immigration officials from questioning him further.

"People from all over the world come to the U.S. to seek the special privilege of U.S. citizenship," Bauer said. "He's had it all, but he doesn't deserve it because he had to lie to get it."

Barth argued back, "Mr. Sakoc is not guilty... Mr. Sakoc never raped anyone, never hurt anyone ... and he never lied on his immigration forms."

Barth said Sakoc's accomplice, a Bosnian Croat, carried out the alleged crimes and was the leader in the atrocities committed. He argued that Sakoc became the scapegoat based on his ethnicity.

Inconsistencies in testimonies and evidence prevented the U.S. government from proving its case beyond a reasonable doubt, Barth said.

Sakoc was never charged for the crime in Bosnia, Barth said.

"The government thinks it can make sense of a war that happened 22 years ago," Barth said. He added that the shifting ethnic lines make understanding the incident much more difficult, and that his client could be a victim of ethnic tensions that still remain.

Contact Elizabeth Murray at 651-4835 or emurray@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/LizMurraySMC.